Dad has new daughter help him pop the question to Mom

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — It’s not every day that you celebrate a birth and a proposal.

But for Sierra Baker, that was the case on March 7.

The 24-year-old Hagerstown resident gave birth to her daughter, River May, at 7:17 p.m. at Meritus Medical Center.

When baby was cleaned up, swaddled and the stocking cap put on her head, Sierra saw “Will you marry me?” written on the cap.

She said yes.

Now-fiancé Austin Kershner, 25, said he’d been planning to propose for about six months.

“I felt it was time,” he said as the family sat smiling in the Labor, Delivery, Recovery and Postpartum unit at Meritus.

Sierra said she wasn’t expecting Austin to pop the question. They’ve been together for two years.

“I had no idea,” she said.

They met after Austin got into a conversation with Sierra’s mother at her mother’s job. Despite her mom’s efforts at playing matchmaker, it still took a few days for Sierra to message Austin.

But then the two of them clicked.

“She came over, and we’ve been hanging out ever since,” Austin said.

While smiling over a sleeping River, Sierra admitted she’d not given a whole lot of thought to plans for their impending nuptials.

“I know that I want it to be on a mountain — with a river,” she said.

In 2023, Meritus Medical Center helped bring 1,801 new babies into the world, including 21 sets of twins. We’re not sure how many proposals we facilitated.

To learn more about family birthing services at Meritus, visit www.meritushealth.com/services/family-birthing-services-at-meritus-medical-center.